A couple of articles ago I wrote about Oppenheimer. This time, it is only fair for me to write about Barbie. To summarise that Oppenheimer article: in the golden days of yore, one could become A Great (academic/ athlete/ singer/ writer/ hedge fund manager) with talent alone. And as I was reminded by Peter, a Currency reader who emailed me afterward, Nassim Taleb once told us that the youth of these days seem to use “working hard” as a signal of pride, rather than shame for “a lack of talent, finesse, and, mostly, sprezzatura”.  Taleb is wrong, and actually to…

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